Even if they were far away from the toll booth, there was still a deep disdain and disgust on Sophia's face.
On the other hand, Kennard and Baron Hannas were chatting merrily. They didn't seem to care at all. Instead, they were discussing whether 50 silver coins per carriage was too expensive or too cheap.
Seeing the two of them ignore her, Sophia finally couldn't take it anymore and deliberately gave a heavy snort.
"Humph!
Building roads is for people to use and they actually want to take money, this is too much! "Sophia's eyes popped out, looking like she was filled with righteous indignation.
"It's a good thing that you were praising that fellow named Xu Yi. I've heard that the idea of building toll booths was from him, right?
This person is this greedy, he is simply rotten! "
Baron Hannas and Kennard looked at each other and couldn't help shaking their heads with a smile.
"Sophia, I want to ask you a question.
The Fersen Carriage Company has invested over four hundred thousand gold coins in building this road, so if they don't build a toll booth, how will they get this investment back? "Baron Hannas asked.
"Why must they get it back?" Sophia said in a loud voice.
"Since building roads is a good thing for all these people, why should everyone fight over it?
Since the Fersen Carriage Company is willing to pay for it, many people will praise them and praise them for doing a good thing.
Why do they have to build a toll booth and be cursed by all these people? "
Kennard gave a sigh and shook his head, "Sophia, you're about to turn eighteen, you're not young anymore. Can you not think like a child in the future?
Even if you're right, if the Fersen Carriage Company didn't build this toll booth, they would have done a good thing and would have received praise from many people.
But you can't expect all the companies in our kingdom to be this selfless, right?
This is clearly not a realistic thing.
If everyone found that there were no benefits in building roads, how many companies do you think would take the initiative to pay for this? "
Although Sophia didn't care about worldly matters, she wasn't a fool. Of course she understood Kennard's reasoning, but she was still a bit unwilling to accept it.
"Four hundred thousand gold coins is nothing to such a large Chamber of Commerce. Isn't it better to use it to build a road for everyone to use for free?
Now that their Chamber of Commerce's reputation has improved, their business will definitely be better. "
"Money doesn't fall from the sky. What right do you have to ask others to contribute to everyone for no reason?" Kennard said.
"The other four hundred thousand gold coins definitely isn't a small amount. Even if the Fersen Carriage Company is a pretty good company in our kingdom, it would take quite a bit of courage to take out this much money at once to build roads.
Speaking of this, this Fersen Carriage Company's chairman is quite bold, actually choosing to build a road at the same time as the New Flyer. "
"Un, Xu Yi praised chairman Pompeii in his letter to me. He said that although he was a person who made a fuss easily, his eyes were worthy of praise."
Baron Hannas replied with a nod before turning to say to Sophia, "Sophia, you just said that many people have cursed this toll station, but do you know that the one who should be cursed is our honourable king and not the New Flyer or the Fersen Carriage Company?"
Sophia was stunned, "What does this have to do with his majesty?
It isn't his majesty who wants them to charge. "
"You're right.
To be honest, it really is his majesty who wants them to charge. "Kennard followed up.
"Because building roads and improving the environment of the citizens is something a country's ruler should do, but our kingdom's finances are lacking money right now and his majesty can't take out this much money to build roads.
But at this time, Xu Yi can come up with this almost perfect method to solve this problem. To be honest, I really admire him. "
"He just wants to rely on this thing to make money, what is there to admire!" Sophia immediately disagreed.
"If he just wants to make money, this toll wouldn't just be a trivial fifty silver coins per horse carriage.
If it was me, I would have raised the price by several times.
Because after experiencing the pleasure of riding on the road, I think that no one would be willing to ride on this kind of broken dirt road. "Kennard said.
"Sophia, are you willing?"
Even though Sophia wanted to continue retorting, they were currently riding a horse carriage on the road. She did not feel any bumps on her buttocks at all, and it was much more comfortable than when they were running on the dirt road. She could not go against her conscience and lie to him.
Seeing that Sophia was speechless, Kennard smiled and didn't plan on forcing her to admit her mistake. He turned to the middle aged man sitting across from him and said, "Uncle Hank, when we return to Anvilmar City, you have to seriously suggest to father that we build a few roads ourselves.
I'm sure that these roads will earn us a lot of money in the future. "
The middle aged man smiled and nodded, "I have this idea as well.
After personally inspecting the comfort and convenience of these roads, I'm very optimistic about the future of these roads.
I even feel that if nothing unexpected happens, in a few years, our Lampari Kingdom will be connected by roads. "
"If it really becomes like that, that would be great."
Kennard said emotionally, "The roads can provide such a convenient transportation environment. I can totally imagine that when the kingdom is connected with roads everywhere, there will definitely be countless carriages running back and forth on these roads. When that time comes, the entire kingdom will become lively because of this."
Hearing Kennard, Baron Hannas, and uncle Hank discussing business, Sophia felt bored. She pursed her lips and opened the curtains, leaning against the window of the horse carriage to look at the scenery outside.
At this time, she felt the benefits of the roads once again.
If they were riding on a bumpy dirt road and she dared to lean her head against the window like this, not mentioning how she would be dizzy from the bumps, she might even bite her tongue off from the bumps.
But now that she was leaning against the window, she could only feel a slight vibration coming from the window and it didn't affect her at all.
Moving on a flat road, the horse carriage was naturally much faster.
Not long after, Sophia saw a large iron sign on the side of the road. The bottom of the sign was blue, but there were two rows of large white words written on it.
Welcome to Banta City.
Have a good time in Banta City.
Sophia was a bit surprised.
They had come all the way from Anvilmar City and had passed through several cities, but this was her first time seeing this kind of sign on the side of the road.
This sign was so eye catching that it was hard for people to ignore it.
Just based on this, Sophia had a bit of good impression of this Banta City that she had never been to before.
After the horse carriage entered Banta City, the scenery on both sides of the road had clearly changed.
When they were still in Saltan City, although they could see farmland on both sides of the road, there were still quite a few places that were barren.
Although it was much better than the barren lands that Sophia had seen in the other cities of the Lampari Kingdom, compared to Banta City, it was still lacking by quite a bit.
When the horse carriage passed by the large blue sign, there was a large patch of golden that came at them.
Looking around, the sides of the road were filled with wheat.
Because it was already the fall harvest season, the wheat in the fields had all grown heavy ears of wheat. There were endless fields that stretched as far as the eye could see.
Sophia was very surprised.
When she was studying at the Lampuri Royal Academy, she had taken some political and agricultural classes. She knew that the Lampari Kingdom was lacking in manpower, so they didn't even have enough people to work the fields, so there were many fields that had been barren.
This Banta City was clearly in the corner of the kingdom, being a small city, but it could actually open up all the fields under its name, letting her see such a magnificent harvest scene.
Sophia thought that this was just a special phenomenon at first, but when the horse carriage continued heading in the direction of Banta City, she found that the fields on both sides of the road didn't stop at all. Looking into the distance, it was like all the places in Banta City had been opened up and planted with wheat.
"This much wheat, it can't even be harvested, right?" Sophia couldn't help muttering to herself.
"Why can't we finish harvesting?" Baron Hannas asked with a smile.
Baron Hannas said with a smile, "Don't forget that Banta City is the headquarters of the New Flyer, there are already agricultural magic machines here.
Not to mention the fields in Banta City, I've even heard Xu Yi say that some farmers in Banta City have established a small company that specializes in harvesting for others. They're planning on going to the surrounding cities to harvest for others during the fall harvest. "
"It's the New Flyer again … …" Sophia muttered. She turned to look out the window again, but she was so angry that she didn't want to pay attention to Baron Hannas.
But when she looked out the window, she saw that there was an even larger iron plate by the side of the road in front of her.
And on this huge metal plate, there was a drawing of a beautiful woman with bright eyes, white teeth, and a picturesque face.
There was a pearl necklace with pearls of the same size around the beauty's neck and there were two sparkling amethyst earrings hanging from her ears.
Although the necklace and earrings were finely made and one could tell that they were precious jewels with a single glance, they couldn't hide the glory of this beauty at all.
It could even be said that because these two jewels were on this beauty's neck and ears, they became this dazzling.
"What is this?" Sophia couldn't help pointing at the large iron plate in surprise as she asked this.
Baron Hannas poked his head out from beside Sophia and took a look, looking a bit confused.
"Sarank Jewels, to make a woman even more dazzling?
Strange, young miss Stiel isn't advertising for the New Flyer, rather she's advertising for Sarank.
What is going on here? "
"Young miss Stiel?
Is she the beauty on the painting? "Sophia asked in a curious voice.
"Right, isn't she very beautiful?" Baron Hannas said.
Sophia looked at the iron plate that was coming closer and she couldn't help nodding, "Un, she really is too beautiful. How good would it be if I was as beautiful as her.
But Hannas, this is a painting, it's impossible for a real person to be this beautiful, right? "
"No, I can guarantee you that young miss Stiel's real person is even more beautiful than the painting."
Baron Hannas looked at Sophia, who didn't seem to believe him, and a teasing smile suddenly appeared on his face.
"Also, I want to tell you something about young miss Stiel."
"What is it?"
"Young miss Stiel is now Xu Yi's girlfriend."
Sophia's expression immediately became very interesting.